STOCKHOLM, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- A suspected case of Ebola has been discovered in a hospital in Swedish town of Enkoping, Region Uppsala told in a press release on Friday.
The emergency room at the hospital has been closed and the patient has been isolated. The patient has already been transferred to the Academic Hospital in Uppsala and is now being cared for at the infection clinic, according to the press release.
"Test answers will probably come sometime tonight. It is only a matter of suspicion now, even other diseases are quite possible," the release explained.
Personnel who have met the patient at the hospital in Enkoping are taken care of, and the hospital's emergency department has been closed for the moment, Swedish Television SVT reported.
"Neither staff nor patients are allowed to leave. Now just wait and try to be patient," Stig Norling, a patient at the emergency department in Enkoping hospital, was quoted by STV as saying.
He also said it was a bit chaotic and those who were going into the emergency room must also stay outside. "And everything feels uncomfortable considering how Ebola is infectious," reported SVT.
With its 22,553 inhabitants, Enkoping is the second largest urban area in Uppsala county, about 70 kilometers north of the Swedish capital city Stockholm. Region Uppsala is a politically controlled organization that is responsible for issues of health care, public transport, culture, and regional development.
The Ebola virus is highly contagious and causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, general discomfort or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding.
Mortality rates of Ebola fever, according to the World Health Organization, are extremely high, with the human case fatality rate ranging from 50 percent to 89 percent, depending on the viral sub-type.
